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[CapnHector]

It seems highly unlikely the ship with the heaviest armor in the game (due to armor cell mechanics actually potentially more difficult to damage than Onslaught for inaccurate weapons), tons of hp, actual shields, 3 forward facing medium missiles, 2 large ballistics, and lots of OP could be bad. Since it's like a better version of Venture LP or Rampart which are already capable of doing anything in the game. Did you try fitting it with 3 Proximity Charge Launchers, an officer with +maneuverability or Auxiliary Thrusters, Devastators, Railguns, Sarissa and setting it to Full Assault?

[Lawrence Master-blaster]

It seems highly unlikely the ship with the heaviest armor in the game (due to armor cell mechanics actually potentially more difficult to damage than Onslaught for inaccurate weapons), tons of hp, actual shields, 3 forward facing medium missiles, 2 large ballistics, and lots of OP could be bad.

Never doubt the AI

[Euphytose]

Hey guys I see this thread is still active!

Sorry again for not posting my fleet, I haven't played in a while, not sure when I'll play again. I'm going to install another OS soon(ish), will need to reinstall and reconfigure everything.

I'll make sure to backup my save of course.

I'm still reading what you post though.

[Argonaut]

After testing, i got a loadout that allows me to fire-and-forget this Dom in my wolf pack frigate-heavy fleet:


Essentially, if the Dom wants to target frigates and destroyers around it, this allows it to, no matter where it's facing. The drones and point defense AI seem to do well enough to keep it protected. I had good success replacing the drone stuff with auxiliary thrusters and the front light assault guns with railguns too.

Here's the result of this solo AI-controlled dom versus a pack (Dom: 25 OP, pack: 38 OP) and it won each of the 5 engagements i tested it with different enemy lineups, up to 45 OP:


The version with auxiliary thrusters (not pictured) likewise stands its own against 3 eagles (60 OP), but a steady pilot won't ever burn drive for the kill for some reason and i haven't tried a reckless. But controlling it personally, it was no problem. Please keep in mind i'm a mediocre pilot.
And finally, it quickly annihilated another stock Dom without taking a single hit, and the AI even destroyed TWO other stock Doms in the simulator, albeit the steady officer took ages to do it. Best of all? Seeing the Dom finally burn-drive to annihilate stragglers on the run from it, as it should be!

[THE SHAMBLER]

I like running with 2 devastators, 3 railguns, 2 flaks, 3 anhilator rocket pods ( or proximities if you swing that way ;] )

The mods are: OMNI shield, armored weapon mounts for the recoil, heavy armour, ITU, Rangefinder, Flux distributor *with any of them S sloted depending on my officer*
(other mods I like: Reighforced Flux, Extended missile racks)
MAX Vents and rest on Caps.

I love these builds because:
1. These aim to help the AI as much as possible, the OMNI shield alongside the relatively low Flux per second and the constant anhilator fire help the AI stay in the fight and focus fire targets.
2. The flak cannons are more than enough since the devastators absolutely destroy incoming fighters.
3. I always have some spare lasher escort the Cruiser to keep pesky frigates from firing torpedoes from behind.

[CapnHector]

Guys, you got me curious and it turns out that this ship is extremely good. Here, you just apply some principles of proper loadout design.

Principles of loadout design:

• Aggression is good, defense is bad.
• Missiles are good, and PCL is the best medium missile.
• PD is a scam.
• Converted hangar is good and should be installed on everything that is not a frigate.
• Small kinetics are better than medium guns.
• Ships with hardpoints must be able to rotate.
• When you have 2000 armor you don't need to worry about flux.

So let's see what we get with these principles:


I took 10 of these unofficered and without player control against an Ordo with a Nova and a Radiant and they won.

Me

[close]

My fleet

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Battle screenshots

This is vanilla .96 with only the Detailed Combat Results and Hexshields graphics mod. AI is set to reckless in doctrine.

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[Lawrence Master-blaster]

PD is a scam.

He says, even as he fits five PD weapons as his main battery and picks a PD fighter for the Converted Hangar.

I took 10 of these unofficered and without player control against an Ordo with a Nova and a Radiant and they won.

My brother in Ludd, you lost half the fleet. Most people would consider losing even a single frigate as "not good enough".

[Grievous69]

• Small kinetics are better than medium guns.

Well yeah when Alex decides for some random reason to buff LDACs to have 0.6 efficiency. Comparing HAC to LDAC makes you think.

[CapnHector]

PD is a scam.

He says, even as he fits five PD weapons as his main battery and picks a PD fighter for the Converted Hangar.

I took 10 of these unofficered and without player control against an Ordo with a Nova and a Radiant and they won.

My brother in Ludd, you lost half the fleet. Most people would consider losing even a single frigate as "not good enough".

Oh, Devastators and PCLs are acceptable PD. So are fighters and firing so many autocannon shots that enemy missiles can't get through. So, I stand corrected on that point. As for the rest, fear of martyrdom and ship losses is an obstacle to building an efficient fleet for fighting the machines. Frankly, just get Derelict Operations (or Hull Restoration I suppose).

Flak is still a scam though. Wasting one of the best slots available so you don't get hit by a missile, when you could have used that slot to destroy the enemy that fired it? Tsk tsk. Not that it even works vs. alpha core Radiants' Reapers. And Vulcan? Same criticism applies except you do get hit by the missile regardless.

[PizzaInSpace]

Seeing as how dominators are somehow much tougher in this update I might start using them soon. any good loadouts to try? saw one of the regular autofits using gauss cannons and LRM's was pretty annoying.

[Jihell Tharsis]

Greetings fellow captains,

My favorite Dominator loadout so far uses elite point defense and machine guns + devastators.
The machine guns saturate shield, the devastator is a killer at close range against anything up to cruiser level of armor and linked reapers help with bigger threats.
Attached is  a screenshot from early in my run in the previous patch.
I ended up replacing the dual machine guns on the side with single ones to save a couple OP. With the new heavy armor s-mod malus I guess both elite armor skill and (at least) standard helmsmanship are necessary if you don't use auxiliary thrusters.

(This build does not require safety overrides. Flux regulators and emergency venting valves are fitted on your power lines for a reason: please respect the work of Domain engineers.)

The fighting style is very much "in your face": front towards enemy, press F, machine guns and devastators kill enemy. If not: fire torps. When flux gets high just drop shields: your armor and PD will do the work. Aggressive officers do well in this ship, but are a little skill starved if you don't have officer training.

## Core principles
### Weapons
- 2 * HMG
- at least 2 * front facing dual machine guns
- 2 * Devastator
- 3 * anti heavy armor missiles (your pick, I like reapers)
### Mods
- Armor tanking mods (at least heavy armor and resistant flux conduit)
- ITU
### Officer skills
- Elite point defense
- some armor tanking skills
Note: in spite of the 3 * medium missiles, missile spec is not a skill priority.

[GreyEisenwolf]

If by escort you mean defending against multiple smaller (Frig, Des) threats than you better off with something like that:



Large mounts on Dom are borderline useless against small and nimble targets.

But as escort Eradicator is better anyway.

Using an Eradicator as an escort is such a waste of a ship with AAF
Might as well just get 2 or 3 Enforcers instead.

[PizzaInSpace]

If by escort you mean defending against multiple smaller (Frig, Des) threats than you better off with something like that:



Large mounts on Dom are borderline useless against small and nimble targets.

But as escort Eradicator is better anyway.

Using an Eradicator as an escort is such a waste of a ship with AAF
Might as well just get 2 or 3 Enforcers instead.

Yes that's true as a dominator can be rather expensive IMO. In order for mine to be good I had to give it an officer with elite impact mitigation and helmsmanship as well as auxiliary thrusters to guarantee a better survivability since it's only weakness is its abysmal maneuverability. I find that combining devastator cannon and a Mark IX Autocannon is really good at causing high flux damage to enemy ships but they tend to play more of a support role early game so as to avoid being surrounded by more nimble ships.